Day Five

Kids, move north.

The kids awoke and climbed out of their beds, rubbing the sleep from their eyes. A few glances proved the events of the previous day, unfortunately, were no dream. At Gary’s suggestion, Jake used his Realitywarping to bring his medication from his old bedroom to his new bedside. They met the rest of the team in the clearing. Tabitha and Alexis were happy to see Frank.

“So, now that everyone’s up and kicking,” Frank said, “what’s the plan now?”

“It seems our goal is to overthrow the current monarchy,” Tabitha said. “Let’s start there. Gary, what do your magic eyes see?”

“North of here is a massive walled city. In the center is a castle, but the Aliens have built the metropolis labyrinthian. Guards have reinforced the city. But as soon as we arrive at the castle, we’ll have the monarchy in our hands.”

“But they’ll be powered up too, right? Like we are? Even stronger maybe? We couldn’t affect them with our Powers, so they’ll still be a major threat,” Alexis said.

“Actually, that most likely isn’t the case,” Jake explained. “They weren’t the original kings, so they shouldn’t be on that level. By the time we get there, we should be powered up therefore stronger than them. Besides, the only ones who actually played the game are on our side, so I’d venture the monarchs don’t have any Powers at all. We could teleport them to their home planet and take the throne for ourselves!”

“Sounds like a plan!” Frank smiled. “So north it is?”

“North.” Tabitha nodded and looked up to get her bearings, noticing one key navigational instrument missing. “Huh. So… anyone have a clue where the Witch is?”

Everyone shook their heads.

“Well … uh… Miss Witch? If you can hear us, we’d like the sun back…”

The sun popped into the sky, to the kids’ surprise. Since they had nothing better to try, Tabitha found North and led the party that way.

They were silent as they walked, and everyone stuck close to their best friends. Upon hearing a stick snap, they fled into the brush. An Alien moved into the scene. Silently agreeing what they needed to do, Jake reached towards the Alien and imagined it falling asleep. But nothing happened. He tried harder, focusing all his thoughts on an unconscious Alien. The Alien then turned towards them, and the felt the air wax hotter. Jake leapt from the bushes and thrust his hands towards the creature again. But nothing happened. Frank popped up behind him and yanked him out of the way as the Alien threw a strand of fire at him. Another Frank leapt from the bushes and grappled with the Alien until it vaporized him. As Jake teleported next to Gary, Constantina unintentionally formed a thunderstorm over the whole wood. Tabitha and Alexis stood impotently by. Tabitha failed to manipulate the being’s emotions while Alexis controlled her own. A third Frank tackled the Alien, but the Alien was getting rather good at vaporizing Franks. Finally, Constantina gathered up the resolve to fight. She brought lightning down all over the battlefield. Narrowly missing her friends, she finally struck the Alien. With a flash of electrical energy and heat, the being exploded into several Essences. Jake collected them and they agreed to return to their clearing.

“What was that, Skitz?” Tabitha snapped after arriving at the clearing.

“We can’t affect people on the same power level as us, and it seems pretty evident that that guy was at least on our level,” Jake answered.

“At least he tried,” Gary muttered.

“I tried, I just…”

“You just what? Your Power didn’t work either?”

“I just figured that you couldn’t tell my Power was working. It’s not a very good Power…”

“What is your Power, Tabitha?” Frank asked diplomatically.

“Empathybending. I get to make people feel stuff. And I feel stuff. It’s lame. Unlike Mr. Omnipotent over here.”

“That’s enough!” Gary growled.

“Why do you hate me so much?” Jake finally cried. “Ever since I told everyone I was schizophrenic, you’ve hated me. And I’ve clearly driven a wedge between you and Gary… I just want to fix whatever I’ve done. Thankfully all this chaos has spared me the voices’ commentary on how I’ve ruined my best friend’s relationships, but I know as soon as this calms down, they’ll come back. Can I fix this? Have I permanently destroyed whatever friendship you two had?”

“You… you’re… don’t you know?” Tabitha stammered. “I thought…”

“What is it?” Gary grumbled.

“Gary… I… it’s you. You’re the… no. He’s done… can’t you tell he… Frank would you kindly quit drumming on your legs?!”

Frank paused the sick beat he was tapping out on his leg.

“I have to… talk alone to you. Right now we… uh…”

“Right now we worry about getting into that city,” Gary finished coldly. “The guards are immune to our Powers, so we need some other way to fight them. Surely we can craft some weapons. Jake, can you get that foam dart gun you have at home?”

“Uh… yeah.” Jake shook his head, closed his eyes, and envisioned his toy weapon. When he opened his eyes, the gun was in his hand. He was filled with the knowledge of what he needed to do. He snapped his fingers and the triangle Alecris drew the night before appeared in the dirt. He placed his dart gun at the rightmost corner, conjured a chunk of iron on the left, and popped a sample of flint at the top. In the center he placed a Death Essence. There was a flash of light, and sitting in the center of the triangle was… what appeared to be his dart gun. He picked it up, aimed at a tree, and fired a short burst of real bullets into it. Triumphant, he shrank the gun and put it into his pocket.

“OK… so Skitz has a gun. Bright idea, by the way, Gary,” Tabitha scoffed.

“Well, it’ll greatly improve our chances of taking the city. Maybe we should head that way and start figuring out what we’ll do while we’re on our way?”

“I would stay where you are,” Mr. Slick said, not bothering to make a dramatic entrance.

“Slick!” Gary growled.

“Would you stop that? This isn’t a cheesy shounen anime, boy. I just know how this will all end. And if you try taking the city with one gun, it will end poorly.”

“What do you suggest we do, then?”

Mr. Slick shrugged. “That is not for me to divulge. But I would advise you to remember the legend about seeing the future in the Void. Every legend has some truth to it.”

“What’re you getting at?”

With a roll of his eyes, Mr. Slick jabbed his index and middle fingers at Gary’s forehead. “Now I’ll be off. Don’t go dying or angering any super-powerful game constructs… again!”

Gary slowly walked over to the triangle. He asked Jake to make a plastic hand mirror. He snapped the mirror in half and arranged the pieces on the triangle. At the last corner he placed a Life Essence, leaving the center empty. With another flash of light, there was a mirror with a pitch black face. Gary gazed into it, feeling the whole of the Void seep into his mind. He saw a tree fall on a small group of Aliens. No one else was nearby. The Essences were all that were visible. Then green lightning crept into the image-- no… into his mind! He felt all reality being blasted apart, his mind at the epicenter! He began hyperventilating as his vision became naught but bright green light. Jake shook him back to his senses as a scream crept into his throat.

“You all right?” Jake asked.

“Yeah…” Gary said, slowing his breathing. “I just… saw something. There’s going to be a tragedy; several Aliens will be crushed by a tree. We can’t stop it from happening, but we can collect their Essences.”

“Do we know where this will be?” Tabitha showed concern for Gary as well.

“No but Mr. Slick told us about it for a reason. I’d bet our finding it is some sort of inevitability written into existence or some BS like that. It looked like they dropped Pure Essences, so it’s a chance for us to get those without killing innocents.”

“So… how do we go about finding it?” Jake asked.

“We’ll split up and scour the woods. But what I saw happens during the day, and the sun is setting presently. I propose we get rested and then start our search in the morning.”

“Sounds good to me,” Tabitha said, turning in the direction of her hut.”

“Goodnight, then, all.” Frank went to his hut.

Constantina followed suit with a nod.

Jake waved as he went home.

Gary sighed and looked fondly for just a moment at the party before going to his new home.

⁂

Jake lie awake in his bed. He stared at the orb of light he sustained at the top of the room.

“Hey, uh... Skitz?” Tabitha whispered from the doorway.

“Yeah?” Jake replied, sitting up.

“Can we talk?” She added hastily: “Or do you need sleep?”

“We can talk. What’s up?”

“You asked why I hated you, and I… well, I’ve been trying to tell you this for a while, but I kept… not. But I’m here now to tell you. Uh… that came out wrong…”

“Just say what you came to say. I can take it.”

“No, I don’t mean-- I just… ugh! Why can’t I talk?!”

“Don’t worry about it. Speak your mind.”

“I think you’re just using your illness for sympathy!” Tabitha blurted. After taking a deep breath, she added, “Or rather, I think you don’t have one at all.”

“And what makes you think this?” Jake did well concealing his reaction.

“The fact that you told everyone! If I had some freaky disease, I wouldn’t go telling everybody about it. I might tell one person and leave it at that.”

“I would too. In fact, I did. I didn’t want to tell anyone about my illness, but keeping it all bottled up was literally going to kill me, so I told Gary. After a couple years, he thought it best I told my friends. And so I told you all. After the others all commended me for my courage, I was embarrassed to tell you that Gary told me to tell you. So this is what split you and Gary apart?”

“I told Gary that you were only manipulating him for sympathy.” Tabitha swallowed a lump. “And he began to hate me for it. So I figured-- figured if he wanted to be fooled, let him be fooled, and then, and I… I don’t know. I messed up. I mean, I’ve seen the inside of you head firsthand; there’s no way you’re sane! No offense!”

“Don’t worry about it,” Jake sighed.

“But I am worrying about it! I don’t know how to fix this! I’ve messed up everything!” Tabitha finally broke into gross sobs. “I pushed Alex away… I’ve hurt Gary… I know you can’t forgive me… man… I can’t even forgive myself.” She chuckled. “I really am pathetic, huh?”

“Tabitha! I didn’t know--”

“Didn’t know what? Did I look like I had my life together? Guess I’m a better liar than I thought.”

“Well… yeah. People like you. They see you and think, ‘Man, I wish I was her.’ You looked like you had everything figured out.”

“I thought I did… and now I don’t. I don’t even know where to go from here.”

“Maybe you can figure everything out again. So you got it wrong the first time. As much as you may want to fool everyone, I still know you’re human.”

Tabitha shook. Tears streamed down her face. She reached towards the door, and Alexis ran in to hug her friend. Jake watched silently. The friends left his hut, and Jake collapsed into bed. A few hours later saw Jake sleep.

End Day Five